You expect me to believe that dogs are smart when my puppy has zero (0) lifetime wins against me and the leash but tries to pull away 250x each walk?

[libra111]

YOU HAVE NEVER WON. LITERALLY NEVER. THE LEASH HAS PULLED YOU BACK EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. WHY CAN YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THAT YOU ARE NOT STRONGER THAN THE LEASH.

 

[greek2me]

@libra111 Pup doesn’t want to win. He wants you to cavort with him.

 

[nldctonc]

@greek2me My trainer calls it the "struggle zone" and says that the dog and especially a puppy wants to be in the struggle zone with you, it's a fun game to them

 

[nicolek]

@libra111 I have said this to my dog a hundred times out loud, while on a walk. Nine months we have worked on this daily. HOW DO YOU STILL NOT UNDERSTAND THAT YOU ARE TETHERED TO ME?

 

[libra111]

@nicolek I’ve got a freedom no pull harness on the way… because clearly the leash doesn’t work. He’s literally glued to my hip, checking in with me every 4 steps when we practice inside. And then we go outside and he thinks he’s on a dog sled team.

 

[infinitas1985]

@libra111 what worked for us was turning around and going the other way when they pulled. every time. “oh you wanna go over there? nope, sorry.” if it keeps happening i make them sit and wait and then try again. i’m not a dog trainer or anything so ymmv but we put our pups through training and that was thing that made the biggest difference for us.

 

[tomm57]

@infinitas1985 My trainer says to just stop, freeze, no talking. No attention. As soon as they turn back towards you, YES! And continue walking.

It’s a variant on the reversing, except they get rewarded (walk continues) for coming back to you.

It’s working really well. We still have to stop way more than I like. But it’s getting less and less.

 

[busymom340]

@tomm57 I would add a yummy treat following “yes”, and if you use a clicker instead of “yes” as your normal training marker, use that instead. Mark+treat the instant they stop pulling or look at you, every time, with timing and consistency, until they get the hang of it. Then transition away from merely not pulling mark+treat the instant they look at you or walk by your side.

They’ll associate “yes” with “good job keep doing that” much quicker if the reward is tangible, yummy and different than what they’re already doing.

 

[tomm57]

@busymom340 Totally! I should have said that my pup already knows yes means he’s doing the right thing, but that came with a lot of treats and yesses!

He does get offered a treat when he turns back to me as well, but he often is just more interested in continuing his walk and ignores the treat.

Now that he can associate yes with a treat being forth coming, if I run out of treats I can get him to do stuff he doesn’t want to do by saying yes yes yes! Even without a treat (he ALWAYS get a treat at the end, even if I have to YES! Until we get home.

 

[tomm57]

Oh and I think clickers are great but I end up fumbling around and don’t get the click off as fast as I can get a yes out. I’m not against spending more time on it, but since he gets “yes” really well and I’m concerned about not always having a clicker on me, and having him spend time with other people who may not have clickers, yes seems like a good compromise

 

[busymom340]

@tomm57 Good advice. I used “yes” instead of a clicker because you’re never caught without it. I just carry a stick of string cheese in my pocket whenever we’re out. Still I’ve done the “yes until we get home” thing more than once

 

[downdraft]

@tomm57 This is my favorite method. Takes sooo much patience, sometimes you only make it 10 paces in 10 minutes. It will work in the long run though

 

[togekiss]

@tomm57 I did something similar now when I walk my dog he stays ahead of me and constantly runs in cricles. he goes out one or two steps ahead but knows enough to turn back before there is resistance on the leash.

An outsider seeing me walk him must think he is the strangest dog

 

[thislifeandthenext]

@tomm57 I have been trying this with little results. My girl will fully focus on me on walk with treats in my hands. She also gets treats when she moved too far ahead and decided to come back.

But as I reduce the frequency of the treats along the walks, she caught on and decided to do what she wants and occasionally come back for treats.

I have been battling loose leash walking for more than half a year now.

 

[tomm57]

@thislifeandthenext So when she does what she wants, you mean pulls? And you stop?

 

[thislifeandthenext]

@tomm57 Yea she will walk all around sometimes ahead, sometimes too far left, and sometimes switch sides. Her attention would not be on me basically.

I would stop, and I have been doing this for months now walking and stopping. She would come back to me each time but then as I move a step forward, she would move ahead again. I know what you gonna say, if she moves ahead again, just stop again. I did, and she does catch on and stay with me briefly. But as soon as we gain momentum she moves ahead again. It has been insanely annoying.

The thing is, she actually knows where she should walk and how she should walk i.e by my side at my pace. How do I know? Because on the walk back home, she always do it perfectly, eyes on me all the while even. However, if we were to go anywhere else, she will start to get ahead of herself.

 

[tomm57]

@thislifeandthenext Well I won’t pretend that I’m some sort of loose leash walking expert.. I’m definitely not and I’m not even there yet with my dog. And it is insanely annoying. Especially when you just want to get somewhere.

I’m hoping that one day it just clicks for him that “if I want to go, I can’t feel this feeling on my back”

I don’t even necessarily need him to associate being by me as what the good behavior is, so much as associate a tight leash with no more walking. Then my husband comes and messes it up by trying to keep him at his side by keeping his leash super tight. UGH. Literally the opposite of what we are working on!

 

[thislifeandthenext]

@tomm57 Do you do it with a harness or a collar?

My girl used to pull real hard till her eyes gone red so I switched to a harness.

Recently her pulling has improved, as in she don't pull hard but will always walk as far as the leash allow so there is always some tension. I read that collar is better at communicating when leash training so I am thinking about switching back to collar.

 

[tomm57]

@thislifeandthenext We are on a harness. One of his trainers wanted us to go back and forth between collar and harness depending on whether or not we wanted to let them sniff around or were supposed to heel..

But he was like 12 weeks and after making me think he damaged his trachea during one of her classes, I said eff it and went all harness.

He may not feel it as strongly with the harness as the collar, but I don’t like seeing him cough and choke so it’s not worth it to me.

 

[theredraven]

@tomm57 Ok, so if they pull, just stop and go if they give you attention. So even if they're still pulling but looking back at you, that's fine? you start walking?

I have only started walking once the puppy returns to me. Which it takes them forever to return to me so training is taking awhile.